This invention generally relates to a bus used to control and connect various medical endoscope related devices used in an operating room environment such as can be encountered in hospitals, clinics and doctors offices. More specifically this invention relates to a method and apparatus for accommodating and connecting devices having different network master capabilities to a bus in a seamless and reliable manner during use of the network and bus in a surgical procedure.
In a co-pending patent application entitled xe2x80x9cSystem For Centrally Monitoring and/or Controlling At Least One Unitxe2x80x9d filed by D. Chatenever, K. Irion, P. Novak and H. -Uwe Hilzinger with Ser. No. 09/180,692 on Nov. 11, 1998 and owned by the same Assignee as this application, a bus for connecting various medical devices for a surgical procedure is described. In one embodiment in this application, devices having different network mastering capabilities is described. The device having the network master capability with the highest priority is assigned to control the network and bus so that only one device will serve as a network master.
The bus described in this co-pending patent application is a modified CAN (Controller Area Network) bus used in automotive and industrial applications. The CAN bus is suitable for real-time operation and permits a multi-tasking master structure.
Publications relevant to central monitoring and/or controlling endoscopic devices are known such as from the European Patent EP 0 319 762 A1 or its German equivalent DE 37 41 833 C1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,584, the International patent WO 95/22363, the Japanese Patent A-62-46182 and the German Utility Model U1 92 18 173. The devices described in these systems are connected and controlled by a master computer via an interface such as described in the above EP ""762 patent or via a network as described in the above ""173 utility model. EP 0 568 081 A1 relates to the examination and/or treatment of eyes.
In a modular communication system for central and sterile operation of medical devices such as endoscopes, endoscopic cameras, insulators irrigators and suction devices and the like, their connection to, or disconnection from, a network may occur throughout a surgical procedure. Some of the devices have network master capability and others are slaves under the operation and control of the network masters. The network masters must do the network configuration and monitoring as well as control. The network master capable devices can, furthermore, have different network mastering capabilities built into them. It is, therefore, important that the engagement of a network master capable device with the network occurs in a seamless manner without interrupting an on-going use of a medical device and thus impart a high level of reliability to the network and the surgical equipment. This becomes particularly important when the network extends across a wide area encompassing different operating locations where various medical procedures may be simultaneously in progress with different patients.
With a network mastering system in accordance with the invention medical devices having network master capabilities built into them can be conveniently connected to or disconnected from a communication network used to interconnect the devices and an automatic network configuration can be established.
This is achieved in accordance with one technique of the invention by employing a bus communication layer that is coupled to various devices as the case may be. A multi-master processing module, that can be identified as the XNM module for xe2x80x9cExtended Network Managementxe2x80x9d, is incorporated to enable the communication layer to automatically re-configure itself in accordance with the network master associated with the medical device that has the highest priority.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an automatic master selection module for use with a communication layer associated with a bus in a network that connects to or is coupled to various medical devices used in a medical procedure.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for selecting one of a multiple of network masters to operate and control communications over a network system connected to medical devices used in a medical procedure.